11:58 AM, 5 Jun 2009 Michael Feller
Wheels & Deals
BHP's wish list
Fresh from the collapse of its deal with Chinalco, Rio Tinto has signed a $5.8 billion non-binding iron ore joint venture agreement with BHP Billiton on the production of the companies' iron ore assets in Western Australia. Rio has also announced a separate $US15 billion capital raising. Market insiders say these are the first steps in what is speculated to become a much bigger deal between BHP and Rio. So what is next on BHP’s wish list?
Wish #3: Coal, diamonds and all the good things in life
There’s more to Rio of course than just debt and iron ore, so expect moves soon on all the other goodies the mining giant has spread around the world. Word is that teams of analysts have been crunching and re-crunching the numbers for BHP ever since the original merger bid was called off and assets of particular interest include Rio's Escondida copper mine in Chile, the firm's metallurgical coal assets in Australia and thermal coal mines in the US and Rio's equity in Energy Resources Australia, a uranium miner, and uranium projects in Namibia. In addition to this there are other copper projects in Peru, South Africa and North America, an ilmenite project in Madagascar plus diamonds, talc, molybdenum, gypsum and salt. It is thought that BHP is less interested in Rio's aluminium and bauxite assets, especially since BHP has been getting out of its own operations in these areas (Friends and alloys, April 30).
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/LUNCH-DEALS-BHPs-wish-list-pd20090605-SQ43C?OpenDocument
Regards
Steve
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